Reviews

Galway Advertiser, 01/06/’07 New Galway-based company, Moonfish, graced the Town Hall studio last week with its swashbuckling account of the amazing-yet-true adventures of two 18th century female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Bonny was of Irish birth but grew up in Carolina whence she eloped with a handsome pirate and, donning male attire, took up a career of wild exploits on the high seas. Here she encountered another feisty, cross-dressing female, Mary Read. Read had served in the British Army and was en route to America when her ship was captured by a pirate crew led by the notorious Calico Jack. Read threw her lot in with the pirates, and she and Bonny would prove to be just as fierce as their male counterparts through many a hair-raising escapade. Moonfish’s lively retelling of this remarkable duo’s story features just two actors, Ionia Ní Chróinín and Libby Christensen, who as well as portraying Bonny and Read also assume the roles of sundry other pirates and their assorted adversaries. The production is further enriched by singer/musicians, Una Ní Fhlannagáin, Damien MacDonnel, and Grace Kiely, who not only provide accompaniment for the show’s rousing selection of songs and shanties but also create sounds such as a ship’s creaking timbers to add to the atmosphere. This was an imaginative, energetic and well-realised production, neatly directed by Máiréad Ní Chróinín, who co-authored the script with her sister, Ionia. The show was about three-quarters of an hour long and we would gladly have spent longer in the company of these singular women, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Charlie McBride, Galway Advertiser, 01/06/’07

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Scotsman, 20/08/'07 The true stories of the pirates of the Caribbean are better than the films - well, the second two, anyway. Never mind "try wearing a corset", real life pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read were tough and wild in a time when women were meant to faint at most things. In this spirited production from a young Irish company, their stories are told by two actors and three musicians. Bonny actually ran off to marry a pirate, but was bored waiting for him on land so took to the seas herself. On board she met Read, also in disguise as a boy, and the two became trusted right-hand "men" to top sea dog Calico Jack (played here, with a wink, as a forerunner of Johnny Depp). It's a simple production, which suits the material, not overly complicated or contextualising their lives as part of a highly dangerous criminal culture, but doing enough to evoke interest. The harp, guitar and percussion, playing period tunes and shanties, do much to add atmosphere, and the dialogue is spirited. "You rob the poor under cover of law," one tells the judge who sentenced them to hang. "We plunder from the rich under the protection of our own courage." ANDREA MULLANEY